SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



for sale at the ridiculous price of $224.98 an acre. After 

 the orange grove racket played out came the pecan 

 groves, and after the pecans, the promoters took up 

 tung groves. That was fifteen years ago and the tung 

 boom was killed by the collapse of tung-oil prices dur- 

 ing the depression. But now it seems distressingly likely 

 that a favorite postwar project of foxy real estate pro- 

 moters will be the tung grove. 



The saddest part of this sorry business is that the 

 bait of a tung grove in the Sunny South will be most 

 alluring to two groups who can ill afford such a risk: 

 the elderly war worker and the returning veteran. To 

 both an escape to farm life will be a powerful magnet. 

 It is a favorite delusion of the city man that an orchard 

 is a sort of agricultural savings bank, managed by 

 Mother Nature, where deposits are guaranteed by God. 

 He pictures himself as an orchardman, cashing his in- 

 terest checks in the form of a profitable, annual crop. 

 The combined charm of what appears to be the safest 

 and the easiest of all agricultural activities in the 

 pleasantest of climates is just about irresistible. 



Orange and pecans are substantial Southern crops; 

 tung oil is now an established product. Each is a highly 

 specialized farm business. The men who succeed are 

 those who play the game according to the rules laid 

 down in the grove by the trees and in the market by 

 their fruits. 



After thirty years of trying, we have over four million 

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